How long do Ring, Nest and Blink keep video?

Ring keeps a video for 60 days by default in the US, or 30 days for its 4K cameras. You can set any length from 1 day to 180 days. In the UK the Ring default is 30 days, with the same 180 day maximum. Google keeps Nest camera events for 30 days on the Standard plan of Google Home Premium and 60 days on the Advanced plan. Blink keeps clips for up to 60 days in the US, but no more than 30 days in the UK and EU. Without a plan, a Nest camera keeps a few hours at most, and Ring says videos are lost for good once a plan lapses.

What cloud storage time means for a camera

When a cloud camera spots motion, it sends a short video clip to the maker's servers. Ring calls this a video, Google calls it an event, and Blink calls it a motion clip. The storage time is how long the company keeps each clip on its servers before it deletes it on its own. Ring's app calls the setting Video Storage Time. Blink calls it Auto Delete.

The clock runs clip by clip, from the day each one was recorded. Google calls this deletion on a rolling basis: older saved video is removed after a set number of days.

One more term matters for Nest. Event video is a clip made when something happens. 24/7 video is a nonstop recording of everything, quiet hours included. Google keeps the two for different lengths, and only wired cameras can have the second.

Every plan side by side

Each company publishes its numbers on its own help pages, and none puts the others beside it. Here they are together, as read on November 4, 2026.

So the answer runs from a few hours to six months. It turns on the brand, the plan, the country and one setting most people never open.

The rules in each company's words

Ring: 1 to 180 days. Ring's US help page lists ten storage times, from 1 day up to 180 days. The US default is 30 days for 4K devices and 60 days for 1080p and 2K devices. Ring's UK page lists the same ten choices with 30 days as the default. Both pages say videos are permanently lost if they are deleted, if the plan lapses, or if the storage time runs out.

Google Nest: 30 or 60 days. Google ties these lengths to the plan you pay for. Nest Aware is now Google Home Premium, Google says, so older guides use the old name. The Standard plan gives up to 30 days of event video. The Advanced plan gives up to 60 days of event video and up to 10 days of 24/7 video. The 24/7 part needs a wired camera. A Nest Cam (battery) only gets it when connected to power, and the Nest Doorbell (battery) never gets it.

Without a subscription, Google lists three cases. The Nest Cam (battery), Nest Cam (wired) and Nest Doorbell (battery) keep up to 3 hours of event video. The newest wired models, such as the Nest Cam Indoor (wired, 3rd gen), keep up to 6 hours of event previews of up to 10 seconds each. Older models keep only photo snapshots of activity, up to 3 hours back.

Blink: 60 days, or 30 in the UK and EU. Blink's storage page says cloud clips are kept for up to 60 days in the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand, and 30 days in the EU and UK. Clips delete after 60 days or after your own Auto Delete setting, whichever comes first. The choices are 3, 7, 14 or 30 days, and EU and UK users have a maximum of 30. Blink is clear that a deleted clip is erased from its servers and cannot be recovered by Blink Support.

Why you keep reading 7 to 30 days

Search the question and page after page says cloud cameras keep footage for 7 to 30 days. That is too short for the US defaults. A Ring 1080p doorbell and a Blink camera both start at 60 days there. The vague range persists because those pages are mostly camera makers writing about plans in general, not about the plan you have.

The second mix-up is about changing the setting. People raise Ring's storage time to 180 days after something happens, then expect last week's clip to stay for six months. Ring's page says only clips recorded after the change get the new length. Clips already stored keep the clock they started with. A Google downgrade cuts the other way: move from Advanced to Standard, and Google says you lose any event video older than 30 days.

The third is region. Blink caps UK and EU clips at 30 days. Ring's UK page also defaults to 30 days, but lets you choose up to 180. So a UK home with both brands can keep a Ring clip six times longer than a Blink one.

One doorstep clip walked through the rules

Suppose a parcel goes missing from a doorstep on March 1, and a camera catches a person picking it up. Here is what each published rule says would happen to it, with nothing downloaded.

• A Ring 1080p doorbell in the US, on the default. 60 days runs to April 30. After that the clip expires and is lost.
• The same doorbell, switched to 180 days on March 10. The March 1 clip was captured before the change, so it still goes at 60 days, on April 30. A clip recorded on March 11 would last to early September.
• A Blink camera in the UK. 30 days at most, so March 31 at the latest, and sooner if Auto Delete is set lower.
• A Nest Doorbell (battery) with no subscription. Up to 3 hours. By the evening of March 1 the event video is gone.
• Any Ring plan cancelled on March 15. Ring says videos are permanently lost when a plan lapses, so the clip does not wait for its date.

So the same clip could last a few hours or two months. The fix is the same everywhere: save a copy before the clock runs out.

What this answer does not cover

These are the limits Ring, Google and Blink publish, as read on November 4, 2026. They are maximums, not promises. Blink's help does not say whether a new Auto Delete setting changes clips already stored. Google says its features vary by plan, device and region, so check the plan page in your country. Arlo is not in the table, because its own plan pages could not be read, so check your plan in the Arlo app. Other brands, and whether filming past your own property is lawful where you live, are separate questions.

How to keep a clip you need

Download it the day it matters. Ring's UK page gives that advice for any video you need past 180 days, and it is the only safe answer on every plan above. A downloaded clip is a file like any other, so a backup you have tested should cover it.

Then open the storage setting once and pick a length on purpose. Longer storage gives you time to notice a problem. Shorter storage leaves less of your life on someone else's servers, a trade set out in choosing between cloud and local recording. If Blink records to a USB drive or microSD card, check it now and then, because Blink says recording stops when it is full.

Deleting is not like expiry. A deleted Ring or Blink clip is gone at once, with no trash folder. That is unlike the 30 day bins in how long deleted photos and files stay in the cloud.

Before you cancel a camera subscription, save what you want, since Ring says the videos go when the plan does. Anyone who logs in to the account can watch, download or delete, so give it a password used nowhere else.

Last, a storage plan only helps while the camera still gets fixes. How long Ring and Nest cameras get security updates gives the end dates. If you are still choosing, picking one smart home ecosystem first decides which of these plans you end up paying for.